My name is Wang Hongmin. I am a 43-year old woman. I have had the good fortune of having taken part in two classes taught by Master Li. Through these classes, I began to learn and understand the principles of Falun Dafa --- the universal characteristic of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." Before that, my spirit and my body were tormented by disease and physical ailments. Not long after I began practicing Falun Dafa, the chronic diseases, including hypertension, stomach pains and appendicitis, disappeared. My narrow breadth of mind has become broad and my fiery temperament has also changed. Falun Dafa has totally changed my life, and completely renewed my heart and body.
After Falun Gong was publicly slandered in Tianjin and dozens of practitioners were arrested and beaten, I informed some fellow practitioners and on April 25th 1999, we all went to Beijing to peacefully appeal. But Jiang's group (Jiang Zemin is the head of the Chinese regime) carried out a large-scale attack on Falun Gong openly and without any legal basis. On July 19th we went to the Appeals Office and the armed Special Forces police surrounded us right away. Very soon dozens of buses appeared and we were forced onto them. We told the facts and the truth of the situation to the police but they punched us violently. We were escorted to Shijingshan stadium, where we were detained for 12 hours with nothing to eat. Later we were pushed onto the buses again and taken to Mentougou Stadium where we were held until 1 am on July 20th. Hundreds of us walked for several hours to get back to the downtown area and went to Chang'an Street to continue our peaceful appeal. However, the plain-clothes police stopped us. They pushed us into police cars and took us to Chaoyang Stadium, where they detained us. On July 20th all stadiums in Beijing were full of detained practitioners who had gone to appeal.
After July 20th 1999, Jiang's regime started to openly persecute Dafa. In order to safeguard Dafa and tell people the truth of the situation, I went to appeal and was arrested four times and detained twice. The first time was July 29th. Four policemen came to my home, searched my home and confiscated Dafa books and Master Li's pictures. They detained me in the police station for six hours. Only after my relatives heard the news and came to the police station was I released. The second time was in December 1999. Dozens of practitioners went to the park where we previously practiced the Falun Gong exercises. On the ninth day, dozens of policemen came to arrest us. They brought us to the police station and interrogated us. They did not allow us to eat or drink, refusing to allow us to contact anyone. Afterwards, they sent us to a detention center in the Congwen area. In the detention center I told the police that it was wrong to outlaw Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a righteous way, not a "cult." The police responded by inciting criminals to physically punish me, ordering me to hand-wash toilets and the floor, and forcing me to sleep on the wet floor. I saw policemen kick and punch practitioners, and slam a practitioner's head against an iron gate. I lost over five kilograms (11 pounds) after nine days of detention.
The day after my release was Chinese New Year's Eve. Without taking a rest, I headed for Tiananmen Square with several practitioners to tell people the truth about Falun Gong. But on East Chang'an Street, before entering the square we were stopped by a policeman who said, "You cannot pass here unless you say Falun Gong is a 'cult'." We replied seriously, "Falun Gong is not a 'cult,' it is a righteous cultivation school." They pushed us into the police car and took us to the Tiananmen Square Police Station. We found there were more than one thousand practitioners detained there. Later they detained me in the Chaoyang detention center. There I was subjected to inhumane torture. Police cuffed my hands, interrogated me, and forbade me to practice. They incited criminals to strip off my clothes and search my body. They abused me by beating me during the search. They punched and kicked me, slapping me in the face, beating my head and lower abdomen. I was dizzy from the attack and my nose was bleeding. In response to the abuse, we held a three-day hunger strike. They force-fed us. We were detained for forty days before our release. The police as well as resident and street committee offices placed me under constant surveillance. My telephone was tapped. My mail was opened before being delivered to me. My rights as a citizen were deprived by Jiang's gang. After that, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners escalated, becoming more and more severe.
In 2000, my husband requested that I be returned to him in Canada. But the Beijing police and the "610 office" (an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political or judicial systems) tried to stop me from leaving. They forbade the local police station and the residential committee office from writing a letter of introduction for me. They put my identification number on the blacklist over their internal network for over one year and refused to issue me a passport. It was then that my husband wrote to the prime ministers of both China and Canada, requesting help. The Canadian government helped us a lot. Because China refused to issue me a passport, the Canadian government issued me landing papers in advance, forcing China to issue me a passport.
Here I sincerely appreciate the compassion and support that the Canadian people and government have shown to Falun Gong practitioners. I thank the Canadian government for giving my child and myself a better life and the freedom to practice Falun Dafa.